Biggest Winners: Penn State vs UCLA

Wheatley played key roles in setting the tone for Penn State’s defense at the start of both halves. He was only credited with seven tackles on the day, which is hard to believe because I counted six just on the first drive.

First of all, what more you can ask a guy to do on that targeting play? Wheatley got so low trying to get under the receiver’s head/neck area he planted a knee in the dirt before the hit. We CANNOT allow that to become a penalty.

Credit to Zakee for not letting that soft-ass flag get to him. He followed that play with a nice stick coming down low in the running game, then got the Nittany Lions off the field on 4th down with another run stuff. He knows he plays the game the right way and he’s gonna keep throwing that shoulder around.

On UCLA’s first drive of the 2nd half, Wheatley’s 2nd down TFL paved the way for Jayden Reed’s 3rd down strip sack. Even though they benefited from the luckiest bounce I’ve ever seen, it was clear the momentum was 100% on our side.

Vega is the first offensive lineman to make The List and he did it as a slot receiver. Okay, maybe “receiver” should be in quotes.

Slot players can move laterally before the snap, and there’s no rule against who can line up in the slot – not yet, at least. You can give a Big Boy a head of steam and watch him destroy folks. Sometimes he’ll also bury them for good measure.

I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s a reactionary rule change – like the Kenny Pickett fake slide rule – coming after this season. Just like in Air Bud: there was nothing in the rule book against a dog playing basketball when that movie came out, but surely there’s been some sort of amendment in the interim.

They came back to this motion in the 2nd half but play-actioned off it, trying to scheme something up for Tyler Warren. Even though they didn’t complete that pass (Warren was mugged in coverage) it’s an important example of how plays can be stacked and stemmed off each other. Show them one thing, when you go back to it they think they know what they’re looking at, then you pull the string on the change-up.

I don’t yet have the stats to prove this yet but it feels like Drew was looking to push the ball downfield more often than in many of the games we’ve seen him play – especially in which he’s leading.

The two intermediate passes to Liam Clifford were triangulated in between three defenders: splitting the two underneath guys and zipping it in before the safety could get there. The deep ball to Clifford was also great to see – as was the savvy vet moment from Drew at the end of that play.

The flag in the defensive backfield could have potentially negated the big gain but Allar knew from where the flag was and when it came out that it had to be on the defense. Maybe he even saw that 12th defender trying to get off the field and was savvy enough to get the snap off in time to create a free play. Either way, it was a “high football IQ” moment from a kid who’s proving he’s actually a GAMER, not just a game manager relying on a top rushing attack to win.

Quinton Martin

Here’s another guy who stepped up in Singleton’s absence. I actually wrote about Martin when he led Belle Vernon to their second consecutive AAA state title.

This offense will look vastly different next year. Kaytron might stick around to prove he can highlight his own unit but Drew, Tyler and Nick (among others) are almost certainly moving on to The League. Getting Martin on the field makes us feel more comfortable about him shouldering more of the load next year, and getting him a taste of the Beaver Stadium experience will make it awful tough to put his name in the portal if he ends up feeling froggy.